Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light

Tactics Ogre

GoldenEye

Tweet This Post

If you love Disney and Japanese role-playing games you will be in heaven this week with the release of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep for the PSP and our competition! The game is a prequel to the hit PS2 games and follows three characters – Terra, Ventus and Aqua as they search through legendary Disney worlds to find Keyblade Master Xehanort. The game is rather lengthy for a portable title as you only see the full story by playing through as all three characters and it also features some of the best graphics you will ever see on the PSP.

To celebrate the release of the game on PSP on September 10th, we have an awesome prize pack up for grabs which features:

An Art Print Pack
A Magnet Set
A Postcard Set
A Special Edition copy of the game!

For your chance to win email richard@epicwinmedia.com telling us who your favourite Disney character is and why. Please include ‘Kingdom Hearts’ in the subject line. Competition open to UK residents only – sorry! Closing date is Friday 17th September 2010.

Good luck, and look out for our Kingdom Hearts:Birth By Sleep review later this week!

Tweet This Post

Those Angry Birds have got people addicted to taking out pigs on the iPhone and iPad but that’s not enough for our feathered fiends as they are also heading to PS3/PSP, the local toy shop and possibly the cinema! The game has sold over 6 million copies on the iPhone and iPad – an amazing amount and mostly down to incredible word of mouth, attracting many people who don’t usually play games to take an interest and have a go on their phone. Now publisher Chillingo have confirmed the game will be released as a ‘Mini’ for the PS3/PSP, one download from the PlayStation Store that is playable on both platforms – bargaintastic.

Developer Rovio have also been in talks to licence the game to Hollywood and toy companies to fully cash in on the popularity of the game, however a potential stumbling block is that a film would take between 2-3 years to be released, and the game could be long forgotten in that time. Would you see an Angry Birds film, or is there another title on the app store that you would like to have some spin-offs?

Tweet This Post

eBay game sellers will be taking another hit with the release of Final Fantasy IX on the PlayStation Network. The PSone Final Fantasy games attracted high prices on the second hand market, but now VII,VIII & IX can be picked up through download to play on PS3 and PSP for £7.99 a piece.

I find it quite scary that PSone games are playable on a handheld and will probably hide under a table when a PSP comes out that can play Final Fantasy XIII. That would need some size of memory stick.

Tweet This Post

The PSP Go has had a hard life with a high price tag, expensive game downloads and missing major games from the PSP library. What would make the system a more attractive purchase? How about 10 free games? MCV are reporting that people who registered a new PSP Go from April 1st will get 10 games including Gran Turismo, LittleBigPlanet and FIFA World Cup. Seems a pretty good deal and hopefully MCV have not got their wires crossed and it is actually one free title from a choice of ten. Expect an update when we get some confirmation.

Tweet This Post

Hope you haven’t had enough of Kratos as he’s back in God Of War: Ghost Of Sparta coming this year for the PSP. The game is a prequel to God Of War 2, showing how Kratos coped with becoming the God Of War and most importantly how he got his scar on his face. The game is from the makers of his last PSP outing and we are promised that the title will be 25% longer this time, so probably around 5 hours. The last game was great but so short, even for a portable title.

Tweet This Post

METAL GEAR SOLID: PEACE WALKER is released for PSP on 18 June 2010, and to celebrate its launch, UNIQLO has produced a collection of 10 limited edition UT t-shirts, exclusively available at selected UNIQLO stores and online from Saturday 19 June, priced at £12.99 each. Each UT t-shirt comes with its own special code, that when entered into METAL GEAR SOLID: PEACE WALKER game, unlocks the purchase so the t-shirt can worn by a character within the game.

METAL GEAR SOLID: PEACE WALKER is the latest addition to Konami’s best-selling series of stealth-based action titles and sees series hero Naked Snake embark on a mission to South America during the Cold War.

To celebrate the launch of the game and the UNIQLO UT collection, Hideo Kojima and lead artist Yoji Shinkawa will be making a one-off appearance at UNIQLO’s London flagship store on Oxford Street, on Saturday 19 June, where they will be signing copies of METAL GEAR SOLID: PEACE WALKER and exclusive postcards. Both will sign one item per person and will be in-store from 11:00am-1:00pm.

Tweet This Post

Next is the release of the original Kick-Ass comics onto the PSP. There are eight issues costing £1.19 each from the PlayStation Store. The comics have also launched onto the Apple iPad but that’s not out here yet so we don’t care at all.

My PSP after a sprending spree

If you are still to see the film, don’t forget to check out the review on Slashing The Seats then book some tickets.

Tweet This Post

In addition to the regular story mode, Snake (aka Big Boss) can join up with characters from the massive selling Monster Hunter franchise to down giant beasts. This should see the game notch up huge sales in Japan thanks to the popularity of the franchise in the land of the rising sun.

Snake can also get boosts to his energy by eating some Doritos, drinking some Pepsi and Mountain Dew or spraying some AXE (lynx) deodorant. I for one am looking forward to munching some Doritos as they were my snack of choice during my mammoth first playthrough of Metal Gear Solid 4. Ah the memories. Design conscious players can dress up Snake in a range of T-Shirts from Uniqlo, and there will also be a real life range of t-shirts available from Uniqlo outlets that come with passwords to unlock even more in-game goodies.

A neat touch in MGS4 was the ability to listen to songs on an iPod. The feature returns in Peace Walker, but what with it being set a few decades ago, Snake has a Sony Walkman cassette player. Sony will also be releasing a special edition Walkman alongside the game.

Looks like being a Metal Gear completionist is going to be very expensive this Summer. Peace Walker is out on the PSP on June 18th.

Tweet This Post

Reading comics takes far too much effort. You have to go to the shop – or wait for the postie to deliver, and then need to use your hands to turn the pages and worst of all move your eyes to each panel. Thankfully, we can save all this effort thanks to the Digital Comics application on the Sony PSP.

How does a big old paper comic fit on a tiny PSP screen? Thanks to the magic of Autoflow. A simple click on the PSP D-Pad and the app swoops into life focusing on a section of the comic for easy reading so you will never miss a piece of stunning art or an important speech bubble. You can see it in action in the video below.

The service has a great range of comics available at reasonable prices. The very first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man all the way back from 1963 is available for £1.19 as are the weekly progs from 2000AD. Issues of cult classic Wormwood by Ben Templesmith can be picked up for only 79p and come with an audio commentary from the great man. The comics look fantastic on the PSP screen allowing you to soak up the gorgeous artwork and text is very clear and crisp.

There are a couple of niggles with the service. First is that you have to buy comics through the PlayStation Store on PSP or PC and not through the app itself. You also need to connect to a PC to delete issues you no longer want taking up Memory Stick space, though this is to be patched in a future version.

Though the app has only been live for a couple of weeks, the Digital Comics service is already a great addition to the PSP and is essential to any comic loving commuter. Now you no longer need to bring your comics onto the bus or train and hope that they don’t get sodden in the rain. That bloke sneaking a look behind you won’t sneeze and cover your treasured issue in phlegm. That stampede at Kings Cross station won’t rip your comic out of your hand – though make sure that PSP wrist strap is on correctly. Best of all you can even listen to MP3s while you read to fully block out the most annoying people in the carriage.

Digital Comics is a free download with PSP Update 6.20.
You can check out the full range of comics at http://www.playstationcomics.com/

Tweet This Post